Validate Before You Execute

The number of ideas that have been pitched to me over the years is staggering. I have been asked to do:

A panic button for Facebook

Online second hand trading places for various niches

Location tracking stuff

Many more I don’t even remember

It’s not just family, friends and colleagues but I
am guilty of it myself. I’ve started many side
projects with the approach of

I’ll build it and they will come.

I’ve been coding many weekends while I could
have (and should have) spent time with my family.

Last March I turned 40 and if that number does nothing
else, it drives the point home that our time on this
planet is limited and it should not be wasted. Maybe
turning forty also makes you write cheesy stuff.

Some years ago, Eric Reis wrote what some refer to
as “The Bible for budding entrepreneurs”,
The Lean Startup. It is a great book describing
strategies and tactics on how to rigorously test
business ideas while wasting the minimum amount of
effort coding. Bascially if you write a software
for two years without talking to anyone, you’re doing
it wrong.

In the beginning, the book talks about what you can do
to validate your business idea. I now deeply believe,
not only because of the book but also from personal
experience, that you should only start writing code
after you’ve exhausted all other options.

It seems counter intuitive for a coder to say this but
you should do what you can to find out if people will buy your thing before writing any code. This includes:

Simply ask people if they would buy it (yep, some entrepreneurs don’t even do that)

Run surveys on Google

Set up a kickstarter. These days you can sell your stuff before you’ve even made it. I can’t think of a better way to validate an idea.

Get seed funding.

Many more, see The Lean Startup by Eric Reis and also the excellent Four Hour Work Week By Tim Ferris.

So for myself, I don’t intend to do another side project without validation.

If you are a funded entrepreneur and need help to build your
Minimum Viable Product, get in touch. However, I may ask you about validation.